Error Message: The Database Files in this Storage Are Inconsistent

Symptoms

When you try to mount the mailbox store or public folder store on an Exchange-based computer, you may receive the following error message:

The database files in this storage are inconsistent

Cause

This issue occurs when your mailbox store or public store contains inconsistencies.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, try to restore the database from a backup (Method 1) if you can. This is the most reliable method if your backup is up-to-date and is usable. If no backup file is available, you might be able to repair the database (Method 2), but you must be aware that repairing a database can lead to irrecoverable data loss. Also, there may be situations where a database is so badly corrupted that it may not be repairable.

Important Microsoft does not recommend that you run a repaired database in a production environment. You must use Mailbox Merge (Exmerge) to merge the data from the repaired database into a new database as soon as possible after you discover that there are inconsistencies in the mailbox store or in the public store.

Method 1

If you have a backup of the store that is inconsistent, you can restore from the backup file, and then mount the store.

Method 2

Repair the information store:

At a command prompt, change to thedrive:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\Bin folder, wheredrive is the letter of the drive on which Exchange is installed. Use one of the following commands:

If you are trying to restore the mailbox store, typeeseutil /p "drive:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA\priv1.edb", and then press ENTER.

If you are trying to restore the public folder store, type eseutil /p "drive:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA\pub1.edb", and then press ENTER.

At the command prompt, type eseutil /mh "drive:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA\priv1.edb" (or pub1.edb), and then press ENTER to verify the consistency information that is returned.

At the command prompt, type eseutil /d "drive:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA\priv1.edb" (or pub1.edb), and then press ENTER to defragment and to compact the database.

At the command prompt, type ISINTEG -SServer_Name -FIX -TEST ALLTESTS, and then press ENTER. Repeat this several times until it reports zero fixes and zero errors.

Mount the store.

Back up the store.

More Information

For additional information about the utilities that are described in this article, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: